Social Security: Apocalypse Now

Bruce Krasting summarizes the disastrous 2012 Social Security Trust Fund Report.  The highlights:

 * NPVof unfunded liabilities is now $20.5 trillion, up 15% in one year.
 * Trust fund depletion date moved up 3 years to 2033.  Legal deadline for benefit cuts to hit in 2026, so people in their 50's now are going to get whacked.
 * Disability Fund "drop dead date" moved up to 2016.

Obviously, Obama looting the Social Security Trust Fund to give the economy a sugar high through Election 2012 isn't helping.

On the bright side, this can and will be resolved in two ways:

1) Means-testing Social Security.  If you're privileged enough to have saved a little in a 401(k), you obviously don't need any handouts.  Watch this start at the fairly affluent, then descend to start cutting off the middle class.

2) Raising the age limit. Social Security is already delayed until age 67 for those born in 1960 or later.  Bump that up to age 70 and you'd be amazed how much it extends the life of the Social Security Trust Fund.  Heck, let's push it to 75.  Grandpa can still say "Welcome to Walmart."

It's either cutting off the old or raising taxes on the young, who are already screwed from inheriting $16 trillion in federal debt, trillions in unfunded state and local pensions, crushing student loan debt, and bleak employment prospects to deal with.

The Disability Fund part is tougher.  It's hard to separate the genuinely disabled from the malingerers and fraudsters.  You'd be amazed how many people become disabled when you pay them to be disabled.  Yep, it's the General Theory of Liberalism again, this time come to deplete the Social Security Disability Fund!

Sunday night funnies

This, from funnyordie.com, is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

Really strong language warning.  If you don't have the sense of humor of a 12-year-old boy, don't even go there.

Happy Earth Day from George Carlin

Happy 420

Remember, kiddos, weed kills.

Green Cars

Spending a little time in London I noticed that that failure of an Italian car company Chrysler offers a car with an MPG rating that blows away anything for sale in the United States. Check out the Ypsilon

Can someone please explain to me why this "green" administration, that is financing billions in Solyndra like failures, that bailed out Chrysler, doesn't insist that Chrysler provide the Ypsilon in the US. I mean if the government weren't involved at all do you think this car would be sold here? That would probably upset the gas companies though and we wouldn't want that...

Please ask your local Prius driving Democrat why cars that far exceed that battery box in efficiency aren't sold in the US. If we want to be green then we should have the option to purchase green cars don't you think?

Volvo has an equivalent.

I'd buy that car if it were available in the US.

Sheila Bair exposes how ZIRP is just a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the banksters

This blog has not often had anything positive to say about Sheila Bair.  Not when she looted the FDIC insurance fund to bail out the wealthy, uninsured depositors of IndyMac.  Nor when she wasted FDIC funds hiring celebrity huckster Suze Orman to pimp bank deposits.

Frankly, we never saw why so many on the Zero Hedge - Naked Capitalism - Jr. Deputy Accountant - Matt Taibbi anti-bankster front seemed to view Sheila Bair so positively.

But in retirement, Sheila Bair just found redemption by writing an epic column for the ages, exposing for the masses Ben Bernanke's ZIRP as a looting of the middle class to bail out the banksters.

For several years now, the Fed has been making money available to the financial sector at near-zero interest rates. Big banks and hedge funds, among others, have taken this cheap money and invested it in securities with high yields. This type of profit-making, called the “carry trade,” has been enormously profitable for them.

So why not let everyone participate?

Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money and buy 10-year Treasury bonds. At the current 2 percent annual interest rate, we can pocket a nice $200,000 a year to live on. The more adventuresome can buy 10-year Greek debt at 21 percent, for an annual income of $2.1 million. Or if Greece is a little too risky for you, go with Portugal, at about 12 percent, or $1.2 million dollars a year. (No sense in getting greedy.)

Think of what we can do with all that money. We can pay off our underwater mortgages and replenish our retirement accounts without spending one day schlepping into the office. With a few quick keystrokes, we’ll be golden for the next 10 years.

Bair is exactly right. Wall Street fatcats blew up the financial system and crashed the economy. Now the Federal Reserve is bailing them out by giving them 0% loans at the expense of widows and orphans earning 0% on their dwindling savings.